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Three months after we got engaged we finally had our engagement party and it was so much fun! A small group of our close friends and our siblings came together to celebrate with us and I’m so grateful! We played the “Soon to be Newly Wed Game” (hosted by Kris) and “Who knows the Bride and Groom Best?” (Hosted by Ryan’s sister Danah) and it was such a good time!

I started off my two years of “bridal-ness” by wearing all white for the occasion! Which i quickly split a red jello shot on, so i ended up changing into legging approximately 2 hours into the party…lol But at least i got a few pictures of my outfit before i ruined it!

A couple of thank yous to hand out – my lovely friend Corri was kind enough to take some pictures for us, so thank you so much! And to Kris as well, for helping with the set up and printing a fun little poster for us!

Almost every other day of the year I’m someone who really doesn’t like attention… but my birthday is the one time I’m cool with it, in fact i welcome it. I’m absolutely the girl wearing the plastic tiara to the club, I’m 100% the one with the sash at the party and yes, you’d better bet i’ll ask about the birthday freebie at the restaurant! My birthday is a time to celebrate and believe me, i do it all!

Personally, I love a themed party and this years theme was “Blackout.” Kris and i and my lovely friends Kristin and Danielle decorated my house with black balloons and black streamers and everyone dressed head to toe in all black. It ended up making for some really great pictures! (and i loved getting an excuse to wear a black lipstick!)

One of the reasons i like my birthday so much is because i always feel so loved! Its such a great feeling to have your favorite people come together, all at once, and spend that time with each other. And i want to make sure it’s known, so i don’t seem like a self centered narcissist, i also love other peoples birthdays – I’m always happy to plan or host a friends party! On the other hand, Ryan doesn’t care at all about his birthday. So when i want to make a big deal out of the day and treat him and buy him gifts, he really doesn’t want it. I always joke and say “you’re ruining your birthday for me!” because i really do like to celebrate other people just as much as i celebrate my own day!

This year i’ll take comfort in the fact that at 23, it’s still acceptable to not have your life together. lol As i slowly approach my mid 20’s i feel like the pressure gets higher and higher to be a full fledged adult, and i’m just not ready for that yet! I take solace in the age of 23. Sure, it’s not quite 22, but i can live with it…

Like i said above – give me all of the free birthday things! Not only am i girl on a budget, but it’s just fun to get to declare that it’s your birthday everywhere you go and get a little (eatable) gift! So i decided to compile a list of my favorite birthday freebie spots.

Enjoy and happy birthday!

Starbucks – Starbucks is my favorite place to go on my birthday. You get a free drink (any size!) OR a free food item. Considering Starbucks is so delicious (and expensive), i love the birthday freebie! Am i going to get an EXTRA large Passion Tea lemonade? – Yes! Do i need an extra large? – Of course not. But it’s free so i’m going to get it anyway! (Shut up, it’s my birthday, don’t judge me.)

The Keg – At The Keg on your birthday you get a free Billy Minor Pie. Which, if you’ve never had the pleasure of trying it, is a delicious caramely, ice cream, cake thingy. (You also get this on your anniversary, for the record.)

Panera Bread – Panera is actually my favorite on-the-go breakfast spot. It’s tasty and much healthier then an Egg McMuffin. On your birthday you get a free pastry, and since this is another place that’s a bit on the expensive side, it’s worth a stop! I would recommend choosing the cinnamon bun as your free treat. Its huge and delicious! (You do have to have a membership card to redeem the treat, but the card alone is so worth it, it’s a great rewards program!)

Booster Juice – If you’re a juice or smoothie lover you have to stop at Booster Juice! They give you a free smoothie, which would normally cost you around $8. Definitely worth it.

Medieval Times – This is one I’ve never gotten the chance to redeem, but apparently you get a free “feast and tournament” on your birthday! And that’s awesome considering Medieval Times tickets usually cost something like $70! My next birthday falls on a Saturday, so maybe i should take advantage of this one next year…

Casey’s – Casey’s isn’t my favorite restaurant, but i wanted to mention it because they’re one of the few places that still gives you a free entree. I’ve found most places these days do a free dessert or a free appetizer, but Casey’s is an OG and they give you a free meal and drink.

All in all, i think it’s obvious that my birthday is my favorite time of year. Partying, friends, food, free things (lol), the list goes on. Whats not to love?

February 13th. Observed in honor of your girlfriends. A day to spend time with your best girls and exchange tokens of love and affection.

Valentines day is the time of year for love, and though Kris and I have lots of love for our significant others, I think it’s important to remember that your girlfriends hold a part of your heart as well!

This year we decided to throw a Galentine’s Day brunch party, to show a few of the women in our lives how much we love and appreciate them! Together, with our awesome friend Corri, we DIY decorated and baked up a storm in anticipation of a fun, girly afternoon.

Though not all of our girlfriends could make it – some live (way too) far away – we ended up having such a fun time! It reminded me that when you make a point, and take a day to love your friends it really makes for great memories and warm, fuzzy feelings.

We made a few purse bingo boards as a game, so please go a head and use the free download to get a copy of those! They’d also be excellent for a bridal shower, or similar event!

You can have the best laid plans in the world – but sometimes life gets in the way. Am-I-right?

We had scheduled a first birthday party, the morning of two other events. I also had an event the night before that we were going to be a little late for, because work schedules. That’s okay! I thought. My mom was going to come down early, and we would decorate and clean the entire house the day before, and prep the food. That way, the morning of my mom could finish off the food, Andrew would go to the store to pick up fresh doughnuts and hot chocolate, and I could take some cute photos for the blog…

Ha. Hahahaha. Hahahahahahahahahahaha.

I’m not going to explain the series of several events, but between multiple people bailing on me, and getting seriously sick the morning of (almost go to the hospital sick) … we moved it to the next day.

My sister and sister-in-law coming from Downtown and Missisauaga respectively had already left by the time we rescheduled, and since they were family we did low-key visits with them during the day. A good amount of people still showed the next day, which was nice. Although I don’t have ANY pictures (except a few cell-phone pics of the cake smash) my baby had fun, and we got to see some friends and enjoy ourselves. That’s all that really matters right?

I thought I should probably share these printables that I made, although I didn’t get any cute photos of them in use 😦

BIG SIGNS: These signs I had printed at Staples using the engineering prints.

Welcome To The Winter Wonderland: We used the welcome sign that said “please come in” so that we didn’t have to run back and forth to the door, especially with the cold weather! We have a “knock and enter” household as it is, but I did include a sign without it, if you’d prefer!

Baby It’s Cold Out There: The lettering is smaller in the middle because we weren’t sure how much space we wanted it to take up. We added paper snowflakes, foam snowflakes, and glittery foam snowmen around it and had this as a wall decoration.

FOOD SIGNS:

It’s Chili In Here: I like puns. This was placed on the cupboard above the chili, because … winter, chili … Yup. This was a bigger sign.

Food Tags:

Hot Chocolate Bar: What great winter party isn’t equipped with a hot chocolate bar?! People probably know what candy canes and marshmallows are, but the extracts and powders aren’t always clear. Plus, this makes everything look cohesive. We got two carafs of hot chocolate from Tim Horton’s, as we were crunched for time. I would still do this in future, but maybe use gift wrap on the caraf to make it look a bit nicer.

There’s a few fun winter food ideas in here too. “Cold Cuts” and “Melted Snowman (ranch dressing, carrots, pretzel sticks). For “snowballs” we used powdered TimBits and got them fresh that morning, but there are a LOT of small white desserts you could use. cookies, big marshmallows, rice krispie balls, white truffles, etc. For beverages we had “Melted Iceberg”(water) and Hawaiian Blue Punch as our “Polar Punch” because of it’s great colour.

I’ve also left blanks for to be added for whatever you need! / I forgot 🙂

ACTIVITIES:

Make A Snowman!: This can be used a myriad of ways. Either taped to the fridge (or metal door) and then add magnets to the accessories, OR use the snowman as a template with white felt, and add felt to the backs of the accessories. Then they will “stick” and this can be done on the floor as well as the wall. Printed as an engineering print on 24×36. I’ve left blank space if you’d like to draw your own items to add, and a banner at the bottom you can cut out and use as well. For a smaller, table game, print out on 8×10 sheets and let children colour &/ cut and paste.

Time Capsule : I’ve included “He/She/They options depending on the needs of your birthday child[ren]. I suggest filling in the sign with a fun example, but it can be framed or placed on the wall. I had my slips printed on blue 8×10 paper and then asked to use the paper cutter to cut them out. I then put them in a snowflake tin. P.S. I, also, will not be reading these until my child turns 18!

EXTRAS: Thank You! We had hot chocolate powder and marshmallows in little baggies, with a snowflake design on them, for guest to take as they left, and we had a sign taped above them. However you could just as easily frame it!

I’m one of those girls who has been thinking and dreaming of her wedding since she was very young. One of my best friends Kristin often recalls the wedding planning scrap book i made when i was in the 8th grade. It was filled with black and white print outs of flower arrangements, jewellery, brides maid dress sketches, venue ideas – it was all there in detail! I spent my high school years watching Say Yes to the Dress and i even completed my college education for Fashion Industry Business with being a wedding dress consultant in mind! I have been obsessed with weddings for my whole life.

And now… it’s my turn!

So the proposal story goes…

Ryan and I had been talking about getting engaged for a very long time, so I knew a proposal was coming soon – but he still totally surprised me! This Christmas I had decided that I was going to ask him for earrings as my gift. We ventured off to the jewellery store one night to scout out possible earring options and while we were waiting to be helped by the jeweller I noticed a beautiful case of engagement rings right in front of us, staring me down. We couldn’t help it and we tried on every ring in the case. (Side note – now that I’ve actually tried on rings I recommend everyone who is getting engaged or married do this. It was SO much fun slipping dainty little circles of gold and diamonds on and off. Seriously, GO and do this!) After finding a few perfect rings (and leaving it to Ryan to decide which of the bunch he would eventually buy for me) the jeweller mentioned that it takes about 3 weeks to order a ring. This is key to my surprised reaction to Ryan’s proposal. In that moment, in my mind, any proposal that could possibly be happening wouldn’t be going down for at lest three weeks. But it turns out Ryan ended up going back to the store a few days later and buying the basic sized ring that they had in stock. It was slightly too small for me (and getting it sized is what would have taken the 3 weeks) but it was just big enough to slip on my finger and get to show off for a few weeks before we send it back to be resized!

On December 23rd Ryan told me he was going to make me a winter wonderland in the basement. Both of us hadn’t been feeling very Christmassy this year because we were moving and renovating all through the holiday season so far, so he wanted to decorate the basement to feel extra festive for me. We had a cozy and romantic couple of hours driving around town to look at Christmas lights and when we got back home he ran down stairs to decorate! It’s so funny to me now, I had no clue he was going to propose to me that night. I actually remember sitting upstairs while he decorated and thinking “too bad it takes three weeks to order a ring because tonight would be the perfect night to propose!” Soon he was finished with the basement and he brought me to the doorway to enter the “winter wonderland.” I opened the basement door and there was white Christmas lights and red ribbon leading down the stairs, with sparkly decorations all over the place. On the wall across from the door way was a hand written sign that said “October 2013 we started talking to each other…” When I started to walk down the stairs our song started playing. I followed the red ribbon down the stairs and through the basement. Every few steps was another hand written note marking another important moment in our relationship (our first date, moving in together etc) and at the end of the ribbon was my stocking. I reached in and grabbed a ring box. When I opened it I realized it was empty and when I turned around Ryan was on one knee with the ring in his hand. He said the most beautiful and romantic words and I completely fell apart. He proposed marriage to me. I said yes. And I ugly cried for the next few hours! LOL

As soon as our song started playing I knew that it was going to be an engagement proposal. The first thing that popped into my mind was “Oh my gosh. This is actually happening.” And the next thing that popped into my mind was literally nothing. After I realized what was happening my mind was clear and weightless as I walked through the basement and took it all in.

We spend the rest of the night and the following few days telling family and friends and living in newly engaged bliss! And let me just say, getting to tell people we were close to was SO much fun! It touched my heart that a lot of my close friends cried when I told them and we felt so much love from everyone.

Now that it’s over a week later, and all of our family and friends know, we have really had time to process what actually happened. We went out and bought a wedding planning binder, a guide to wedding planning book and we’ve even done smaller things like making our first draft guest list and deciding on our wedding party.

Thinking about exciting things like the engagement party, cake tastings and getting to ask my friends to be my brides maids has been so much fun! The more intimidating things like the Jack and Jill, the ceremony, and the price tag has been a bit more stressful. But all in all I really can’t wait to celebrate with those I love and of course, to throw the biggest and best party any of us have ever been to!

Ryan and I have spent four Christmases together so far, and as the years have gone on we’ve started to develop our own holiday traditions, separate from our childhood and family ones. I think it’s important to a relationship to have something special that you two do together to celebrate the season. We’re a young couple, so we don’t have an overwhelming amount of Christmas traditions yet, but the ones we’ve developed are very meaningful to me.

I want to share a few of our traditions with you guys and hopefully I can give you some inspiration!

Party time!

One of the most exciting traditions we’ve begun is to host a Christmas party with all of our friends. We’ve done it three years in a row and by now it’s something I’ll always make time for and really look forward to. Each year has differed a bit. The first year we did a traditional, sit down, pot luck style dinner, the second year we did a less formal horderves dinner in which Ryan and I cooked all of the food, and this year we’re hosting a more casual everyone bring any random dish of your choice type of deal. Though the food plans have always differed, one things is for sure, there will always be a big party with drinks, music and games after dinner!

Tree Ornaments

Our next tradition is one that I think a lot of people have. Each year we buy each other one Christmas tree ornament. It’ll be really special to look back in ten years when we see our tree and have 20 ornaments total from each other reflecting our relationship.

Shopping

This one seems a bit silly and trivial, but we always put a day or two aside to embrace holiday consumerism and go shopping together. Both for Christmas decorations and for gifts for friends and family. We make a day of it by going to Starbucks and getting warm holiday drinks, taking our time strolling around the isles of glitter and Christmas cheer and playing Kelly Clarkson’s Christmas album in the car between stores. It’s such a fun day and it’s grown into a really fond holiday memory for us! Though it seems like a meaningless activity, it’s become a way for us to stop and take time to spend the day together during this busy and hectic season.

Advent Calendar

Every year we’ve gotten a chocolate advent calendar. This’s one traditions that is spilled over from childhood, but this year we decided to make it a bit more personal and cutesy-romantic. Ryan came up with the idea of getting one of those reusable advent calendars that you keep each year and fill with your own chocolate. We’re going to put a special treat in each compartment for each other and take turns opening the advent calendar doors. I thought it was such a sweet and fun idea (and slightly out of the usual for him to come up with something so cute and romantic…haha!)

So there are our main couples Christmas traditions! Laying it all out in detail has made me feel so festive and excited for the next few days! Hopefully reading about them has done the same for you.

Hi! We are Becca & Kris. Beckraa is a lifestyle blog about our foray into new home ownership, fun fashion, and hobbies and happenings along the way. Hopefully you can find something that sticks with you and come along for the ride!
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